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Help AR spread its progressive message to larger audiences at a time when it's particularly needed! We have no underwriters, government grants or advertising income. Radio stations receive our programming free of charge. We depend solely on you, our listeners, to sustain us. You can mail us a check for any amount. Send your check to Alternative Radio, PO Box 551, Boulder, CO 80306. Or just give us a call at (800) 444-1977, Monday–Thursday 9–5pm.

Sovereignty of the People

Sovereignty: preeminence of the people, self-rule. The framers of the Constitution, having lived under the tyranny of King George the Third were fully aware of the corrupting nature of absolute power. And the need for the citizenry to exercise independence and control. But under the contemporary doctrine of neoliberalism there has been a steady erosion of sovereignty, a transfer from popular control to powerful and largely unaccountable transnational institutions. So-called free trade agreements, negotiated behind closed doors, have fast track provisions and special panels and tribunals that do an end run around sovereignty. Most of our putative representatives, wooed by corporations, do their bidding. The people are marginalized and rendered to the sidelines. Well, not entirely. You can turn out and vote then you can go home and watch a Law & Order rerun or something truly profound like Keeping up with the Kardashians.

Speaker(s):

Ralph Nader has spent a lifetime fighting on behalf of ordinary people. He has run for president four times. Life magazine ranks him as one of the most influential Americans of the twentieth century. Founder of Public Citizen, he is a long-time advocate for consumer safety and workers' rights. He rose to fame in the 1960s when he took on General Motors and its unsafe Corvair car. His book Unsafe at Any Speed not only created a sensation but was instrumental in the enactment of the Motor Vehicle Safety Act. His efforts helped create the Environmental Protection Agency. He has exposed the misdeeds of the corporate sector as well as of the political system. In recent years he has been in the forefront of the struggles around NAFTA, the WTO, corporate welfare and single payer health care.